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The Potters Meet the Potters

12 November 2009

We were delighted to have the opportunity to host the entire first team squad of Stoke City Football Club at our offices on Tuesday 10th November. The team met with real-life potters on a guided tour of our factory floor. The Barclays Premier League team was delighted to receive our invitation to meet with fans and gain a valuable insight into Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery heritage.

During the day we were able to showcase various techniques used to transform a lump of clay into the finished tableware product – as used at the Premier League clubs Britannia Stadium. Our interactive tour even saw the players have a go themselves, with goalkeeper Steve Simonsen showing safe hands by painting a bowl and shaping a piece of clay onto a mould.

Tony Pulis, Stoke City boss, said: "The supporters always come and watch us and spend a lot of money doing so. This will be the closest some of the fans will get to the players and it's fantastic for them. The people that work here save their money so they can come and give us such terrific support. Pottery is a big industry in this city and some of the players didn't know anything about it, so it's nice to be able to bring them here. The workers here have been fantastic with us."

Abdoulaye Faye, Stoke captain, said: "It's important we come and meet the people who give us such fantastic support. Everybody works so hard to pay to come and watch us and they deserve the respect of the football club."

To mark the end of the tour, our Chief Executive, Kevin Oakes, presented Mr. Pulis with a commemorative plate, along with a tea service for the manager's office. He said: "It's great that The Potters have met The Potters."

Robert Thomson, season ticket-holder and our Head of Manufacturing Operations, said: "I've enjoyed it and I'm sure the staff has too. It was nice that the players were genuinely interested."

Chris Proud, our Head of Marketing and Design, said: "We were delighted to host the full squad from Stoke City Football Club here today. We have over 550 employees working here, a large number of which are huge fans and season ticket holders. To see the smiles on the workers’ faces was terrific – you can see how much this visit meant to them.”